The food of this species is chiefly gleaned among the upper branches, and consists of various coleopterous and other insects and their larvæ. Later in the season they consume various kinds of wild berries.
When their nest is approached, the male bird usually keeps at a cautious distance, as if fearful of being seen, but his much less gaudy mate hovers about the intruder in the greatest distress. Wilson relates quite a touching instance of the devotion of the parent of this species to its young. Having taken a young bird from the nest, and carried it to his friend, Mr. Bartram, it was placed in a cage, and suspended near a nest containing young Orioles, in hopes the parents of the latter would feed it, which they did not do. Its cries, however, attracted its own parent, who assiduously attended it and supplied it with food for several days, became more and more solicitous for its liberation, and constantly uttered cries of entreaty to its offspring to come out of its prison. At last this was more than Mr. Bartram could endure, and he mounted to the cage, took out the prisoner, and restored it to its parent, who accompanied it in its flight to the woods with notes of great exultation.
Early in August the male begins to moult, and in the course of a few days, dressed in the greenish livery of the female, he is not distinguishable from her or his young family. In this humble garb they leave us, and do not resume their summer plumage until just as they are re-entering our southern borders, when they may be seen in various stages of transformation.
This species is extremely susceptible to cold, and in late and unusually chilly seasons large numbers often perish in their more northern haunts, as Massachusetts and Northern New York.
The nests of the Scarlet Tanager are built late in May, or early in June, on the horizontal branch of a forest tree, usually on the edge of a wood, but occasionally in an orchard. They are usually very nearly flat, five or six inches in diameter, and about two in height, with a depression of only about half an inch. They are of somewhat irregular shape, or not quite symmetrically circular. Their base is somewhat loosely constructed of coarse stems of vegetables, strips of bark, and the rootlets of wooded plants. Upon this is wrought, with more compactness and neatness, a framework, within which is the lining, of long slender fibrous roots, interspersed with which are slender stems of plants and a few strips of fine inner bark.
Mr. Nuttall describes a nest examined by him as composed of rigid stalks of weeds and slender fir-twigs tied together with narrow strips of Apocynum and pea-vine runners, and lined with slender wiry stalks of the Helianthemum, the whole so thinly plaited as readily to admit the light through the interstices.
The eggs, four or five in number, vary in length from an inch to .90, and have an average breadth of .65. Their ground-color varies from a well-marked shade of greenish-blue, to a dull white with hardly the least tinge of blue. The spots vary in size, are more or less confluent, and are chiefly of a reddish or rufous brown, intermingled with a few spots of a brownish and obscure purple.
Pyranga ludoviciana, Bonap
LOUISIANA TANAGER
Tanagra ludoviciana, Wilson, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 27, pl. xx, f. 1.—Bon. Obs. 1826, 95.—Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 385; V, 1839, 90, pl. cccliv, cccc. Tanagra (Pyranga) ludoviciana, Bonap. Syn. 1828, 105.—Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 471. Pyranga ludoviciana, Rich. List, 1837.—Bonap. List, 1838.—Aud. Syn. 1839, 137.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 211, pl. ccx.—Sclater, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1856, 125.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 145. Pyranga erythropis, Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. XXVIII, 1819, 291. (“Tanagra columbiana, Jard. ed. Wilson, I, 317,” according to Sclater, but I cannot find such name.)
Sp. Char. Bill shorter than the head. Tail slightly forked; first three quills nearly equal. Male. Yellow; the middle of the back, the wings, and the tail black. Head and neck all round strongly tinged with red; least so on the sides. A band of yellow across the middle coverts, and of yellowish-white across the greater ones; the tertials more or less edged with whitish. Female. Olive-green above, yellowish beneath; the feathers of the interscapular region dusky, margined with olive. The wings and tail rather dark brown, the former with the same marks as the male. Length, 7.25; wing, 3.60; tail, 2.85.
Hab. Western portions of United States, from the Missouri Plains to the Pacific; north to Fort Liard, south to Cape St. Lucas. Oaxaca (Scl.); Guatemala (Scl.); Orizaba (Scl.); Vera Cruz (winter, Sumichrast).
Habits. This bird is one of the many instances in which Wilson has been unfortunate in bestowing upon his new species a geographical name not appropriate at the present time. We have no evidence that this bird, called the Louisiana Tanager, is ever found within the modern limits of that State, although it occurs from the Great Plains to the Pacific, and from Fort Liard, in the northern Rocky Mountains, to Mexico.
It was first met with by Lewis and Clark’s party, on the Upper Missouri, a region then known as Louisiana Territory. They were said to inhabit the extensive plains in what was then called Missouri Territory, building their nests in low bushes, and even among the grass, and delighting in the various kinds of berries with which those fertile prairies were said to abound.
Mr. Nuttall, who met with these birds in his Western excursions, describes them as continually flitting over those vast downs, occasionally alighting on the stems of some tall weed, or the bushes bordering the streams. Their habits are very terrestrial, and from this he infers that they derive their food from the insects they find near the ground, as well as from the seeds of the herbage in which they chiefly dwell. He found them a common and numerous species, remaining in the country west of the Mississippi until the approach of October. In his first observations of them he states that though he had seen many of these birds, yet he had no recollection of hearing them utter any modulated or musical sounds. They appeared to him shy, flitting, and almost silent.
He first observed these birds in a thick belt of wood near Laramie’s Fork of the Platte, at a considerable distance east of the Black Hills. He afterwards found them very abundant, in the spring, in the forests of the Columbia, below Fort Vancouver. In these latter observations he modified his views as to their song, and states that he could frequently trace them by their notes, which are a loud, short, and slow, but pleasing warble, not very unlike that of the common Robin, delivered from the tops of lofty fir-trees. Their music continues, at short intervals, during the forenoon, and while they are busily engaged in searching for larvæ and coleopterous insects, on the small branches of the trees.
Dr. Suckley found this Tanager quite abundant at certain seasons in the vicinity of Fort Steilacoom. In one year a very limited number were seen; in another they were very abundant. From frequent opportunities to examine and to study their habits, he was inclined to discredit the statement of Nuttall that they descend to low bushes, the reverse being the rule. He found it very difficult to meet with any sufficiently low down in the trees for him to kill them with fine shot. Their favorite abode, in the localities where he observed them, was among the upper branches of the tall Abies douglassii. They prefer the edge of the forests, rarely retiring to the depths. In early summer, at Fort Steilacoom, they could be seen during the middle of the day, sunning themselves in the firs, or darting from one of those trees to another, or to some of the neighboring white oaks on the prairie. Later in the season they were to be seen flying very actively about in quest of insect food for their young. On the 10th of July he saw one carrying a worm in its mouth, showing that its young were then hatched out. During the breeding-season they are much less shy, the males frequently sitting on some low limb, rendering the neighborhood joyous with their delightful melody.
Their stomachs were found filled with insects, chiefly coleoptera; among these were many fragments of the large green Buprestis, found on the Douglass fir-trees.
Dr. Cooper adds to this account, that this bird arrives at Puget Sound about May 15, and becomes a common summer resident in Washington Territory, especially near the river-banks and among the prairies, on which are found deciduous trees. He compares its song to that of its black-winged relative (P. rubra), being of a few notes only, whistled in the manner of the Robin, and sounding as if the bird were quite distant, when in reality it is very near. He met with these birds east of the Rocky Mountains and up to the 49th parallel.
In California the same observer noticed their arrival near San Diego, in small parties, about the 24th of April. The males come in advance of their mates, and are more bold and conspicuous, the females being rarely seen. He saw none of them in the Coast Range toward Santa Cruz, or at Santa Barbara, in summer. He also found them in September, 1860, in the higher Rocky Mountains, near the sources of the Columbia, in latitude 47°. In the fall the young and the old associate in families, all in the same dull-greenish plumage, feeding on the berries of the elder, and other shrubs, without the timidity they manifest in spring.
Mr. J. K. Lord states that he did not once meet with this species west of the Cascade Mountains. He found them on the Spokan Plains and at Colville, where they arrive in June. Male birds were the first to be seen. On their arrival they perch on the tops of the highest pine-trees, and continually utter a low piercing chirp. They soon after pair, and disappear in the forest. Where they breed, Mr. Lord was not able to discover, though he sought high and low for their nests. As he never succeeded in finding them, he conjectured that they must breed on the tops of the loftiest pine-trees. They all leave in September, but do not assemble in flocks.
These Tanagers breed at least as far to the south as Arizona, Dr. Coues having found them a summer resident near Fort Whipple, though rare. They arrive there in the middle of April, and leave late in September.
Mr. Salvin states that this Tanager was found between the volcanoes of Agua and Fuego, at an elevation of about five thousand feet. Specimens were also received from the Vera Paz.
Specimens of this species were taken near Oaxaca, Mexico, by Mr. Boucard, where they are winter residents.
Mr. Ridgway writes that he first met with these Tanagers in July, among the pines of the Sierra Nevada. There its sweet song first attracted his attention, it being almost exactly similar to that of its eastern relative (P. rubra). Afterwards he continually met with it in wooded portions, whether among the willows and cotton wood of the river-valleys, or the cedars and piñons of the mountains. In May, 1868, among the willows and buffalo-berry thickets of the Truckee Valley, near Pyramid Lake, it was very abundant, in company with Grosbeaks and Orioles, feeding upon the buds of the grease-wood (Obione), and later in the summer among the cedars and nut-pines of East Humboldt Mountains, where the peculiar notes of the young arrested his attention, resembling the complaining notes of the Bluebird, but louder and more distinct. In September he noticed them feeding, among the thickets bordering the streams, upon the pulpy fruit of the thorn-apple (Cratægus) that grew plentifully in the thickets. To the eastward it was continually met with, in all wooded portions, as far as they explored.
In manners, it is very similar to the P. rubra. The songs of both birds are very nearly alike, being equally fine, but that of this species is more silvery in tone, and uttered more falteringly. Its usual note of plit-it is quite different from the chip-a-ra´-ree of the P. rubra.
He met with their nest and eggs at Parley’s Park, Utah, June 9, 1869. The nest was on the extreme end of a horizontal branch of a pine, in a grove, flat, and with only a very slight depression, having a diameter of four and a half inches, with a height of only an inch. It was composed externally of only a few twigs and dry wiry stems, and lined almost entirely with fine vegetable rootlets.
The eggs, usually three in number, measure .95 by .66 of an inch. In form they are a rounded-oval. Their ground-color is a light bluish-green, sparingly speckled, chiefly at the larger end, with marking of umber, intermingled with a few dots of lilac.
Pyranga hepatica, Swainson
Pyranga hepatica, Swainson, Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 124.—Sclater, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1856, 124.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 302, pl. xxxi.—Kennerly, 131.—Ridgway, Pr. A. N. S. 1869, 132.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 144. Phœicosoma hepatica, Cab. Mus. Hein. 1851, 25. Pyranga azaræ, Woodhouse, Sitgreave’s Expl. Zuñi, 1853, 82 (not of other authors).
Sp. Char. “Length, 8.00”; wing, 4.12; tail, 3.36; culmen, .68; tarsus, .84. Second quill longest, first intermediate between fourth and fifth. Bill somewhat shorter than that of æstiva, but broader and higher at the base, becoming compressed toward the end; a distinct prominent tooth on commissure; its color plumbeous-black, paler, or more bluish plumbeous on lower mandible. Male. Head above brownish-red, purer anteriorly; rest of upper parts and sides brownish-ashy, tinged with reddish; edges of primaries, upper tail-coverts and tail, more reddish. Beneath, medially, fine light scarlet, most intense on the throat, growing gradually paler posteriorly. Lores and orbital region grayish-white; eyelids pale-red; ear-coverts ashy-red.
Female. Above ashy-greenish-olivaceous, brightest on forehead; edges of wing-feathers, upper tail-coverts, and tail more ashy on the back; beneath nearly uniform olivaceous-yellow, purer medially; lores ashy; a superciliary stripe of olivaceous-yellow. Young male similar to the female, but forehead and crown olivaceous-orange, brightest anteriorly; superciliary stripe bright orange, whole throat, abdomen, and breast medially rich yellow, most intense, and tinged with orange-chrome on throat.
Hab. Mountain regions of Mexico and southern Rocky Mountains of United States. Oaxaca (Oct., Sclater); Xalapa (Scl.); Guatemala (Sclater); Vera Cruz (not to alpine regions, Sumichrast).
This species differs from all the others in the great restriction of the red; this being confined principally to the head above, and median lower surface, the lateral and upper parts being quite different reddish-ashy. The shade of red is also peculiar among the North American species, being very fine and light, of a red-lead cast, and most intense anteriorly.
Habits. A single female specimen in full plumage of this beautiful bird was obtained by Dr. Woodhouse in the San Francisco Mountains of New Mexico. It was an adult female, and so far is the only one known to have been found within the limits of the United States. It is not rare in the highlands of Mexico, whence it probably extends into the mountainous portions of the United States.
Specimens have also been procured from Guatemala, and Mr. Boucard met with it at Choapam, a mountainous district in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.
Nothing is known of its habits.
Pyranga æstiva, var. æstiva Vieill
SUMMER REDBIRD
Muscicapa rubra, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 326. Tanagra æstiva, Gmelin, I, 1788, 889.—Wilson, I, 1810, 95, pl. vi, f. 3.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 232; V, 1839, 518, pl. xliv. Pyranga æstiva, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. XXVIII, 1819, 291.—Bon. List, 1838.—Ib. Conspectus, 1850.—Aud. Syn. 1839, 136.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 222, pl. ccviii.—Sclater, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1855, 156.—Ib. 1856, 123.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 301.—Heermann, P. R. R. X, p. 17.—Ridgway, Pr. A. N. S. 1869, 130.—Maynard, Birds E. Mass. 1870, 109. Phœnisoma æstiva, Sw. Birds, II, 1837, 284. Phœnisoma æstiva, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 25. ? Loxia virginica, Gmelin, I, 1788, 849. (Male changing.) ? Tanagra mississippiensis, Gmelin, I, 1788, 889. Pyranga mississippiensis, Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 272. Tanagra variegata, Lath. Ind. Orn. I, 1790, 422. (Male changing.) Tangare du Mississippi, Buffon, Ois. V, 63, pl. enl. 741.
Sp. Char. Bill nearly as long as the head, without any median tooth. Tail nearly even, or slightly rounded. Male. Vermilion-red; a little darker above, and brightest on the head. Quills brown, the outer webs like the back. Shafts only of the tail-feathers brown. Bill light horn-color, more yellowish at the edges. Female. Olive above, yellow beneath, with a tinge of reddish. Length, 7.20; wing, 3.75; tail, 3.00; culmen, .70, tarsus, .68.
Hab. Eastern Province United States, north to about 40°, though occasionally straying as far as Nova Scotia; west to borders of the plains. In winter, south through the whole of Middle America (except the Pacific coast) as far as Ecuador and Peru. Cuba; Jamaica.
In the accompanying cut we give outline of the bill of the two varieties of Pyranga æstiva as compared with a near ally, P. saira, of South America. (13,190, P. æstiva; 34,344, P. æstiva var. Cooperi; 50,994, P. saira.)
13190
34344
50994
This species is one of wide distribution; its habitat in the United States including the “Eastern Province,” north to Nova Scotia, and west toward the Rocky Mountains, along the streams watering the plains, through Texas, into Eastern Mexico, Central America, and the northern part of South America, as well as some of the West India islands.
In the different regions of its habitat the species undergoes considerable variations as regards shades of color and proportions. Specimens from Texas and Eastern Mexico exhibit a decided tendency to longer bills and more slender forms than those of the Eastern United States; the tails longer, and colors rather purer. In Central America and New Granada the species acquires the greatest perfection in the intensity and purity of the red tints, all specimens being in this respect noticeably different from those of any other region.107
Specimens in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, from Peru (39,849 ♂, 39,849 ♂, and 39,850 ♀, head-waters Huallaga River), are undistinguishable from those killed in the eastern United States.
The young male exhibits a variegated plumage, the red appearing in patches upon the other colors of the female; in its changing plumage, the red generally predominates on the head, and often individuals may be seen with none anywhere else. In this condition there appears to be a great resemblance to the P. erythrocephala (see synoptical table), judging from the description, but which appears to be considerably smaller, and perhaps has the red of the head more continuous and sharply defined.
The young male in first summer resembles the female, but has the yellow tints deeper, the lower tail-coverts approaching orange.
Habits. The Summer Redbird is found chiefly in the Southern States, as far north as Southern New Jersey and Illinois. Mr. Audubon speaks of their occurring in Massachusetts, but Mr. Lawrence has never known of their having been found farther north than the Magnolia Swamps near Atlantic City, N. J. One or two recent instances of the capture of these birds in Massachusetts, as also in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, have occurred, but these must be regarded as purely accidental.
This species is said by Mr. Salvin to enjoy an almost universal range throughout Guatemala. It occurred in December at the mouth of the Rio Dulce, in the pine ridges near Quisigua, and along the whole road from Isabel to Guatemala, a distance of eighty leagues.
Mr. C. W. Wyatt met with these birds also, in all varieties of plumage, throughout Colombia, South America, at Herradura, Cocuta Valley, and Canta. Mr. Boucard obtained them at Plaza Vicente, Mexico. Dr. Woodhouse observed this species throughout the Indian Territory, Texas, and New Mexico, where it seemed solitary in its habits, frequenting the thick scrubby timber. It has been known to breed at various points in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas. To the northward it breeds more or less abundantly, as far as Washington, D. C., on the east, and Southern Illinois and Kansas on the west, being much more common in the Mississippi Valley than in the States on the Atlantic in the same parallel of latitude.
Mr. Dresser found it quite common about San Antonio, Texas, during the summer season, arriving there about the middle of April, which is just about the period at which the three specimens were taken near Boston. It is comparatively rare in Pennsylvania, though abundant in the southern counties of New Jersey, and in Delaware, Eastern Maryland, and Virginia. It is also abundant in the Carolinas, in Georgia, Florida, and the Gulf States.
Wilson, in describing the nest and eggs of this species, has evidently confounded them and some of their habits with those of the Blue Grosbeak. Their eggs are not light-blue, nor are the nests, so far as I know, as described by him. Audubon and Nuttall copy substantially his errors.
The food of this species during the spring and early summer is chiefly various kinds of large coleopterous insects, bees, wasps, and others. Later in the season, when whortleberries are ripe, they feed chiefly on these and other small fruit. In taking its food it rarely alights on the ground, but prefers to capture its insects while on the wing.
The usual note of this bird, which Mr. Audubon pronounces unmusical, resembles the sounds “chicky-chucky-chuck.” The same writer states that during the spring this bird sings pleasantly for nearly half an hour in succession, that its song resembles that of the Red-eyed Vireo, and that its notes are sweeter and more varied and nearly equal to those of the Orchard Oriole.
The late Dr. Gerhardt of Varnell’s Station, in Northern Georgia, informed me that these birds are quite common in that section of country. The nest is usually built on one of the lower limbs of a post-oak, or in a pine sapling, at a height of from six to twenty feet. They are usually constructed toward the extremity of the limb, and so far from the trunk as to be very difficult of access. They are generally built from the middle to the end of May. The eggs are four in number.
In Southern Illinois, according to Mr. Ridgway, the Summer Redbird arrives about the 20th of April, staying until the last of September. It is more abundant than the Scarlet Tanager, and much less retiring in its habits, frequenting the open groves instead of the deeper woods and the forests of the bottom-lands, being especially attached to the parks and groves within the towns. From its similarity in appearance, manners, and notes to the Scarlet Tanager, it is seldom distinguished by the common people from that bird, and those who notice the difference in color between the two generally consider this the younger stage of plumage of the black-winged species. Its song is said to be somewhat after the style of the Robin, but in a firmer tone and more continued. It differs from the song of the P. rubra in being more vigorous, and delivered in a manner less faltering. Its ordinary note of anxiety when the nest is approached is a peculiar pa-chip´it-tūt-tūt-tūt, very different from the weaker chip´-al, rā-rēē of the P. rubra. The nest is placed on a low horizontal or drooping branch, near its extremity, the tree being generally an oak, or sometimes a hickory, and situated near the roadside or at the edge of a grove. In its construction it is described as very thin, though by no means frail, permitting the eggs to be seen through the interstices from below. Mr. Ridgway never found more than three eggs in one nest.
A nest of this species (Smith. Coll., 589) from Prairie Mer Rouge, Louisiana, has a diameter of four inches and a height of two. Like all the nests of this family, the cavity is very shallow, its deepest depression being hardly half an inch. So far from corresponding with the descriptions generally given of it, this nest is well and even strongly put together, although a portion of the base and some of the external parts are somewhat openly interwoven, as if for ventilation. These materials are fragments of plants, catkins, leaves, stems, and grasses. These seem to constitute a distinct part of the nest, and are of unequal thicknesses in different parts of the structure. Within this external frame is a much more artistic and elaborately interwoven basket, composed entirely of fine, slender, and dry grasses, homogeneous in character, and evidently gathered just at the time its seed was ripening. It is of a bright straw-yellow, and forms the whole internal portion of the nest.
The eggs vary somewhat in size and shape, from an oblong to a rounded oval. Their length is from .80 of an inch to an inch, and their breadth averages .68. Their color is a bright light shade of emerald-green, spotted, marbled, dotted, and blotched with various shades of lilac, brownish-purple, and dark-brown. These are generally well diffused equally over the entire egg.
PLATE XX.
1. Pyranga cooperi, Ridgw. ♂ N. Mex., 34344.
2. Pyranga cooperi, Ridgw. ♀.
3. Pyranga ludoviciana, Wils. Neb., 38388.
4. Pyranga ludoviciana, Wils. ♀.
5. Pyranga æstiva, Gm. ♂ Ga., 13190.
6. Pyranga æstiva, Gm. ♀.
7. Pyranga rubra, Linn. ♂ Iowa, 34177.
8. Pyranga rubra, Linn. ♀.
9. Pyranga hepatica, Swains. ♂ Mex., 22414.
10. Pyranga hepatica, Swains. ♀.
Pyranga æstiva, var. cooperi, Ridgway
Pyranga cooperi, Ridgway, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. June, 1869, p. 130, fig. .—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 142.
Sp. Char. Length, 8.60 (fresh specimen); extent, 13.50; wing, 4.24; tail, 3.68; culmen, .84; tarsus, .80. Male. Generally rich pure vermilion, similar to that of æstiva, but lighter, brighter than in eastern examples, and less rosaceous than in Central American specimens. Upper surface scarcely darker than lower, the head above being hardly different from the throat, and abruptly lighter than the back, which, with the wings and tail, is of a much lighter dusky-red than in æstiva; exposed tips of primaries pure slaty-umber, primaries faintly margined terminally with paler (in the type, this character is not apparent, owing to the feathers being somewhat worn; in other specimens, however, it is quite a noticeable feature, although possibly not to be entirely relied on). Female. Above orange-olivaceous, beneath more light yellowish, purest medially; crissum richer yellow than other lower parts, being in some individuals (young males?) intense Indian-yellow, with the inner webs of the tail-feathers margined with the same; quite distinct line of orange-yellow over the lores.
Hab. Upper Rio Grande and Colorado region of Southern Middle Province; south, in winter, along Pacific coast of Mexico as far as Colima.
This bird, quite different from Eastern æstiva, is, however, probably only a representative form of the same species in the Colorado and Upper Rio Grande region, migrating south in winter, through Western Mexico to Colima, as specimens from Texas and Middle Mexico appear to be quite intermediate, at least in form.
Habits. This is a new form, whose claim to distinctness was first made known by Mr. Ridgway, in 1869. In appearance, it most resembles the P. æstiva, but is larger. It has been found in the Middle Province of the United States, from Fort Mohave at the north, to Colima and Mazatlan in Mexico.
Dr. Cooper found this bird quite common near Fort Mohave, after April 25, in the Colorado Valley, latitude 35°. They chiefly frequented the tall cottonwood, feeding on insects, and occasionally flew down to the Larrea bushes after a kind of bee found on them. He states also that they have a call-note sounding like the words ke-dik, which, in the language of the Mojave Indians, signifies “come here.” They sing in a loud, clear tone, and in a style much like that of the Robin, but with a power of ventriloquism which makes the sound appear much more distant than it really is. The only specimens of this species known to have been obtained in the United States were taken at Los Pinos, New Mexico, by Dr. Coues, and at Fort Mohave by Dr. Cooper. Other specimens have been procured from Western Mexico.